The outbreak of the worms taking advantage of vulnerabilities in commercial desktop security software has highlighted the need for multi-faceted security measures. Perimeter defenses (e.g., conventional firewalls) are only marginally effective in suppression of worms because of the difficulty of defining and implementing these types of systems. Enterprise networks, in particular, are at risk from a deficiency in security against worms. For example, once a worm is in a company's internal network, it can spread to other internal computers even if they are completely isolated from the Internet. Furthermore, worms may be introduced into a company's internal network by laptops that are used both outside and within the enterprise.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and/or device for protecting against worms and other security threats within enterprise networks, and generally, data networks. There is also a need in the art for a method or device for protecting a host in an internal network from other hosts in that same network in a brownfield and greenfield environment. In addition, there is a need in the art for a device to enhance the installation and/or configuration process for applications on this network.